Neither a borrower nor a lender be

From Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1603:
LORD POLONIUS: Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

I do wish my in~laws would take this sage advice. Instead they seem to view my husband as their own personal cash cow. Whenever their poor choices result in financial problems they expect my husband to bail them out because he's the oldest, because he has a college degree (a college degree he paid for with student loans, a small scholarship and a Pell Grant), because.....................(he's dumb enough to).

On November 6, 2006 my husband loaned his brother $1,500, his brother has yet to repay one penny of the money. Normally we wouldn't have had that kind of money to loan, but we had recently taken out a signature loan in order to repair our roof, we got a little extra in case more unexpected problems cropped up. Originally we were just replacing the shingles on the roof, but when they started working the roofers discovered the decking had rotted and had to be replaced, hence the signature loan. So I have a loan with an interest rate of 8.45% to make payments on every month, while my brother in law enjoys an interest free loan from us that he has yet to make a payment on. And you can bet every month when I have to make the payment and I think of all the things I could be doing with that money my blood pressure starts to rise. To add insult to injury this is the same brother in law that sent me nasty emails after his wife the drama queen lied about something I supposedly said (and apparently it wasn't the first time she made stuff up about me either). While he has yet to apologize he didn't have any trouble taking money from me, and not only has he not repaid us he hasn't bothered to tell me thank you. Of course he will justify that by saying he never asked for the money. Which he didn't, he had his Mommy call and tell Hubby that Brother Plumber (who owns his own business) would lose everything if Hubby didn't bail him out. So after numerous phone calls from his Mommy while she badgered and guilted him into it Hubby charged to the rescue, irregardless of his wife's feelings and regardless of the fact that he had just finished telling me we needed to tighten our belts and pay down our debts ASAP, because he won't have a job in a couple of years unless he relocates (that's another post).

And it's not like we don't need the money. This year we have had a lot of unexpected medical expenses; Lord Epa dislocated his patella necessitating an ambulance ride (not covered by our insurance) and an emergency room visit (covered after we meet the deductible), both boys had to have four impacted wisdom teeth removed (another deductible to meet and additional charges because we chose to use a local oral surgeon rather then force the kids to endure a two hour car ride in order to use an in-network provider) and I have had to have several procedures (that are hopefully over). Not to mention his looming unemployment. Our eldest son is also in college and I would love to be able to help him financially, but thanks to my brother in law we couldn't even purchase the lap top that he was required to have, for him. And because of my husbands income (apparently they don't care how much debt you owe or how much money your stupid in~laws milk out of you) he didn't qualify for any grants or scholarships. So it really makes my blood boil when my husband refuses to help his own son, because nobody paid for him to go to college, but he will all to readily throw money to his Momma, brother and sister every-time they ask. This isn't the first time we have bailed brother in law out of a financial mess.

I have to admit I am proud of my son for paying for his own college education by working his butt off. But he is only 18, I wish he didn't have to work so hard. And I wish my stupid brother in~law the plumber (who only works on new construction) would pay us back.